Wednesday, 16 February 2011

disclaimer

Although I'm researching the development and usage of the internet - including the booming online/Blog communities - working on my own homepage is not (really) a priority. Alas: lack of time is a 'real', 'non-virtual', 'offline' disadvantage, and with what is left I prioritise offline engagement, so bare with me...

Bio Miriyam Aouragh

As an undergrad I studied anthropology/non-Western Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (specialized in what was then called 'Ethnic and Minority Studies'); during my graduate studies I took courses in Anthropology & Sociology at Goldsmiths University of London, and Arabic and Politics at Birzeit University. The MA thesis concerned the question of national identity amongst university students in Palestine during the Oslo era after the First Intifada. I worked as a
counselor in Amsterdam [setting up projects and policies vis-a-vis minority youth, something I cared about politically and personally. With local politics I couldn't change much of the structural
inequalities, I got more involved in activism and at the same time an academic itch started. In 2001 I embarked on a PhD research regarding the implications of the Internet in Palestine. I got involved with anti-war and anti-racism campaigns. After the Phd research I taught 'Race, Racism and Islamophobia in the Netherlands' . In 2008 I was awarded the Rubicon grant and since 2009 a postdoc fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. I study the implementation of Web 2.0 in political activist organizing in Palestine and Lebanon and I follow the impact of the internet on complex political dynamics in the Arab world. Apart from research I lecture Cyber Politics and Mass Media at the Oxford Middle East Centre University. In 2013 I will start a new research (Leverhulme) about the role of new/online media before, during and after the Arab revolutions at CAMRI (University of Westminster).

Guernica

Picasso's magnificent piece, which at once illustrates and protests the insanity of war, is a reminder for all